Narcissism and Relationships

ARE NARCISSISTS BAD FOR RELATIONSHIPS OR ARE RELATIONSHIPS BAD FOR NARCISSITS? : THE EFFECT OF NARCISSISM ON CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS

by
Sara K. Seward
200303585

A term paper presented to Dr. Christie Lomore in Psychology 341:20
The Self

Department of Psychology
St. Francis Xavier University

March 26th, 2007

The term narcissism was first introduced to us by Freud, (1914/1957, as cited in Campbell, Brunell, & Finkel, 2006) in reference to the story of Narcissus. Narcissus was the concept of self-love in human form. He viewed himself as better and more attractive than all of those around him, which in turn prevented him from developing any close, loving relationships with others. Narcissus spent him life looking for the “perfect” partner. One day he fell in love with his own reflection and could not bear to be separated from his newfound love. He remained by the pool of water until he eventually died. The story of Narcissus shows us that having a narcissistic personality can have detrimental effects on not only our relationships but on our selves as well (Campbell, Foster, & Finkel, 2002). By proposing the following research question I hope to identify a possible correlation between narcissistic behaviour and relationship satisfaction. My question is “Do narcissists engage in behaviour that negatively affects their relationships which may lead to a decrease in relationship satisfaction?” A suitable way to distinguish a narcissist from a non-narcissist is to consider that narcissists are very self-oriented whereas non-narcissists are primarily others-oriented. This difference may be due to the fact that narcissists are focussed on self-love whereas non-narcissists more frequently focus on the needs of others. There are nine characteristics that define a narcissistic personality,…...

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